The present invention relates to curing device, especially for light-induced curing of dental materials, having substantially a pistol-shape with a grip whereby the grip is connected by a cable to a supply station and whereby the supply station has a support for supporting the curing device.
Such a light curing device, in the following referred to as hand-held apparatus, is known from European patent application 0 166 364 or German Gebrauchsmuster 92 12 892. These known solutions have a cable connection between the grip of the substantially pistol-shaped hand-held apparatus and the supply station. For ergonomic reasons, the cable exits the hand-held apparatus usually at the lower end of the grip in order to prevent that the cable will be a nuisance when manipulating the device in the vicinity of a patent's mouth.
The supply station has a support for supporting the hand-held apparatus which support receives the grip of the hand-held apparatus. While such a support for a hand-held apparatus operated by batteries, as known from European patent application 568 800, can be realized without problems, the more powerful cable-supplied version of a hand-held apparatus, that is independent of battery operation, requires special measures at the support in order to accommodate the cable connection for such plug-in supports.
German Gebrauchsmuster 95 12 892 therefore provides special slots. However, this requires the cable to be inserted exactly at this location. This complicated insertion has already been realized in the known Gebrauchsmuster so that instead of one slot two slots are provided which both are suitable for extending the cable therethrough.
Even though these slots provide a plurality of insertion possibilities, i.e., in the case of two slots two insertion possibilities, the insertion of the grip into this location at the support requires a relatively great manipulation precision and especially requires the careful attention of the dentist. However, such an attention to detail is undesirable for such hand-held apparatus because the dentist should be able to concentrate fully on the actual dental work without having to attend to special manipulation problems for the dental apparatus he uses.
It is thus understandable that such hand-held apparatus are carelessly placed onto the treatment table or an auxiliary tray where the hand-held apparatus is unprotected. The sensitive end of the light guide is exposed, and, when accidentally catching the connecting cable between the supply station and the hand-held apparatus, the apparatus can be easily pulled off the table and damaged, especially since the surfaces of the hand-held apparatus as well as of the table or tray are usually very smooth for reasons of hygiene.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a light curing device of the aforementioned kind which is improved with respect to manipulation and storage so as to be accepted by dentists as well as with respect to ergonomic aspects.